The Family Car(go) Bike

When Lela Rose needs to take her two children to school or pick up a bag of potting soil or transport a large chair, she doesn’t grab the keys to the family vehicle. Instead, she hops aboard her cargo-hauling tricycle.

“It’s literally a car,” said Ms. Rose, a fashion designer who regularly commutes on the trike in heels and a dress from her home in TriBeCa to her office in the fashion district. She says the machine has changed her life.

“I figured out the key to New York,” she said. “It’s a trike that hauls your stuff.”

Ms. Rose is one of a small but growing number of New Yorkers who are using bicycles and tricycles not only as personal transportation but also as near replacements for cars, taxis or the subway to carry children, pets, groceries, lazy spouses and more up and down the city’s new bike lanes.

Christian Hansen for The New York TimesDesigner Lela Rose moving cargo.

Ms. Rose’s ride, a Worksman Cycles industrial trike, was customized by George Bliss, an owner of Hudson Urban Bicycles, a bike shop in the West Village. Mr. Bliss lengthened the frame and added a hand-built cargo and seating cab that looks a bit like a miniature sleigh from a Currier and Ives print, albeit one that comes with a roll-bar and custom upholstery.

“They’re really bespoke objects,” said Mr. Bliss. The customized trikes cost about $3,000 all told, about average for these vehicles.

Since building Ms. Rose’s tricycle about five years ago, Mr. Bliss and his shop have made more than a dozen more, including one for the actress Kate Winslet.

“Ten years ago I would never have thought it would be the glamour moms who would be my customers,” said Mr. Bliss, who previously built cargo trikes for gardeners, sculptors and other handymen who wanted to haul their gear with human power.

Another fan of cargo bikes is Peter Hoffman, the chef and owner of BackForty and Savoy restaurants, who can often be spotted at the farmers’ market in Union Square astride his blue cargo bicycle; unlike Ms. Rose’s vehicle, it is Dutch-style, with the cargo area in the front. Mr. Hoffman had the platform enlarged to accommodate restaurant supplies.

“I’ve moved eight cases of wine” at a time, he said. “I took my kids to school on it for over 12 years.”

Mr. Hoffman will probably soon be joined by others. Two shops that carry Dutch cargo bikes and trikes have recently opened in the city. One, Rolling Orange in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, sells a dozen styles, from small models that can carry an apple box-worth of gear to behemoths that can move 100 to 200 pounds, according to Christine Brinkhorst, the shop manager.

Ms. Brinkhorst acknowledged that the bikes were not inexpensive. “But it will save money in the long run,” she said, adding that the bikes were low maintenance and could be stored outside because they were treated to prevent rust.

The other new shop, Adeline Adeline, in TriBeCa, carries a short and a long Dutch cargo bike. Kansas Waugh, who bikes to his job at an ad agency in TriBeCa, recently ordered the long version. He said he and his wife wanted to be able to carry their 21-month-old daughter as well as any abandoned furniture or garage sale bargains they found in their Red Hook neighborhood.

“My kids would much rather go on the bike than the car,” said Kelly Craig, whose daughters call her cargo trike “Rosie, the taxi bike.” It’s pink with silver upholstery, colors the girls picked out.

Ms. Craig, a model and stunt actress, said she once loved the thrill of dodging buses on her conventional bike. But now she has found the trike to be a calming force.

“When I’m on Rosie, with cars it’s a totally different experience,” she said. “Cars clear, even when I don’t have kids in the back. People make jokes, asking if ‘I can have a ride.’ People smile, whether I have the kids or not. If I have the kids, forget about it.”

The women I see peddling down Madison Ave with their children comfortably enjoying the tricycle ride seem to have figured out a new way to multi-task. These savy mom’s accomplish their errands while exercising and fighting air pollution. The new adult tricycles look like fun and are cheaper to pimp with flashy seat covers than a minivan. Its the best way I’ve seen to curb our dependence on oil.

As far as I’m concerned these cargo bikes commit the same against cycling that SUVs did against driving. They’re spoken of as “bespoke objects” using the same terminology used to sell SUVs. They’re manufactured with 20th century steel instead of aluminum or composites like other bikes that cost $3,000. And they’re carrying tremendous amounts of extra weight that won’t be used 90% of the time and clog up the bike lanes 100% of the time.

For those who aren’t interested in a $3,000 fashion statement, you can get a bike trailer from Costco for $80. It holds two kids in restraints under sun protection. It’s made out of aluminum so you have a chance of getting up hills. And when you get to your beach house you can drop the trailer and ride your normal bike, unencumbered.

I agree with CycleGeek’s recommendation to get a bike trailer. I don’t have kids. I’m not a member of Costco. And my Burley flatbed trailer cost more. It can haul 100 pounds, and I’ve done so. It is easy to store in my foyer, leaning against a wall. It has opened me up to many things I couldn’t have done before.

Cycle geek is right: bike trailers are cheaper and in many ways more functional. I used mine today to take my daughter and her cousin to the pool and back, and then to an arts festival in the opposite direction. But these bespoke trikes do look really cool!

I have biked in NY for more than 20 years and bike from Red Hook to midtown for work. I can’t agree with the SUV comparison — crowded bike lanes are an absurd exaggeration. However, these bikes are so expensive that mom’s like me who do not have a spare $3000 have to consider them major investments (my bike cost me $30 about 15 years ago). I have been trying to figure out how I can get one that is more affordable for well over a year. You can’t talk about a significant contribution to society or the culture of getting around if the innovation is so much more costly than the status quo — especially in a city, like NY, with such great public transportation.

As for a trailer, the cargo bikes seem to offer much more control and protection.

To #7 – I guess my problem is that in this case the New York Times is providing an incomplete picture of the universe of carrying cargo on your bike. They’re catering to a very specific type of consumer – the ones who, apparently have thousands of dollars of disposable income to support local craftspeople providing inefficient solutions to their needs.

I agree that if it takes looking like a pretend European to get someone riding a bike, good for them. It’s their effort pushing these behemoths along. But I suspect that the fun will drain out of it a lot more quickly than if they had simply engaged in the sensible solution of a good bike from a national manufacturer with a trailer attached.

To #8 – I concur 100%. There’s absolutely no reason except vanity not to wear a helmet on your bike. I’m an advocate of making non-helmet wearers mandatory organ donors if they are rendered brain-dead while on their cycles.

Maybe I’m too sensitive as a new parent (3 month old), but I can’t imagine taking my kid on one of these on NYC streets! The fumes, the noise, the hurried, insensitive drivers. This isn’t Amsterdam or Copenhagen, people!

JR is on to a big problem here- the adults don’t aren’t wearing helmets and the kids’ helmet are very poorly adjusted. Nobody is properly protected.

I think that bike trailers and trail-a-bikes have major problems (length and being hinged) which means that you are a little less sure of where your “cargo” is. Additionally weight limits for trailers of 100 lbs. means that you are limited in what you can haul and the trailer being shorter than car hoods does not contribute to their safety in any way- yes, I know there are flags but don’t last long before needing a replacement.

I think these new trikes and other bike inventions are really getting people thinking about the best way to solve a problem and are a huge improvement on current methods (hence their price which will come down as they begin higher production).

Agree with JR above. In the case of Ms. Craig, especially, she’s teaching her kids that helmets are only important for children. So when they ride bikes as teenagers or adults themselves, they’ll remember that lesson.

As a parent, I also think I couldn’t use a bike as a regular form of transport for my child(ren) on the streets of New York or any major city. One wrong turn, one taxi that runs a red light — boom. You and your kid(s) are dead.

I know, fatal car accidents happen all the time too. But at least in a car, with seat belts, air bags, properly-used child restraint systems, a mild-to-moderate accident is generally survivable.

I’m with JR. I worked in bike shops on and off for a decade and I’ve seen the aftermath of cycling head injuries. It’s not an appealing thing. If these people want to be good role models they should wear a helmet when riding a bike in anywhere…and especailly in NYC traffic!

What’s nuts to me is trying to get around NYC in a car. I live up state, have had my driving experience in Manhattan before, get around my small upstate town on a bike faster than I can a car. anything to get people there out of a car is a good thing.

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